While Jayden Daniels won the Rookie of the Year award last season, Brock Bowers had an equally impressive year, finishing second in the voting. He caught a rookie record 112 passes and set the rookie tight end receiving record with 1,194 yards. He also became the first rookie TE since Jeremy Shockey in 2002 to make the All-Pro First Team. It’s no wonder former NFL QBs are showering praise on him.
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Yes, Bowers has been that good. His rookie season was so strong that some are already calling him the best tight end in the NFL, and it’s a hard claim to dispute. With stalwarts like Travis Kelce and Mark Andrews fading in recent years, Bowers seems primed to take over as the league’s new top tight end.
He’s even drawn praise from two NFL legends, Tony Romo and Matt Ryan, who compared him to the great tight ends they once had the privilege of playing alongside.
“I’ll tell you, tight end [in today’s game I could have played with], I look at Brock Bowers right now as a young player,” Ryan said on the NFL on CBS.
“[Me and Tony Romo] were both lucky. I played with Tony Gonzalez, he played with Jason Witten… Those are both top 5 tight ends ever. Like, ever,” Romo added.
The two were indeed very lucky during their careers. Witten holds the Cowboys franchise records for receiving yards and receptions and is only one TD shy of tying Dez Bryant’s career total.
Meanwhile, Gonzalez is considered the greatest tight end to ever play the game. After all, no player at the position has more career receptions or receiving yards than him. So, for Bowers to already be mentioned in that company speaks volumes.
“I look at a guy like Brock Bowers in that kind of category, though. That’s a guy, if you’re a young quarterback and you’ve got 10 years to play with him, man, I just think he’s going to turn into an unreal player,” Ryan added.
It really seems like the sky is the limit for Bowers right now. And while he did have young QBs throwing to him all last season, the Raiders went out and got Geno Smith for 2025/26. He’s a veteran who should only enhance the value of the tight end phenom.
After Ryan, Romo pointed out why it’s so important to have a great tight end like Bowers on a team.
“The game gets simple when you have a guy that’s close to the line of scrimmage, who, like, oh, this guy got beat? Get him the ball. And then, like, his size, he’s not covered per se. But he’s fast, explosive, big, physical, quick twitch,” Romo shared.
This led Ryan to give perhaps the hottest take of the entire interview.
“Love Tony G, but I think Brock’s got some more top end than both of those guys,” Ryan said.
It’s a massive comparison for Bowers with just one season under his belt, but it rings true. If you compare the sophomore tight end’s rookie year to the likes of Gonzalez and Witten, he blows them out of the water. The only one who had him topped in a stat was Gonzalez with 11.2 yards per reception, but he did it with a third fewer catches than Bowers.
This is exactly why people are going crazy over Bowers. He’s a generational talent who has the opportunity to become one of the greatest tight ends to ever play. With his hot start, it seems like not a matter of if, but when he’ll be crowned as the league’s outright best tight end.
Later on in the interview, Romo and Ryan shared some other current players that they’d have liked playing with.
“Justin Jefferson would be nice to throw to. I look at his skillset because I like his length, I like his speed, I like his catch radius. Smooth route runner,” Ryan said.
“A different answer might be like Derrick Henry,” Romo added.
All in all, it was a thought-provoking conversation where two NFL legends broke down the current state of tight ends.
We’ll see if Bowers can live up to his gaudy expectations that he set in his rookie season, or if he experiences a sophomore slump. If we had to put money on it, we’d bet on seeing another record-pushing year. So would Ryan and Romo.
